FOUNDING FATHERS

“But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations…This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”John Adams, letter to H. Niles, February 13, 1818

“If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.”John Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772

“Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States…. I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in… abhorrence.” John Adams, letter to Evans, June 8, 1819

“All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.” George Washington, letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham, January 9, 1790

“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty.” George Washington, Circular to the States, May 9, 1753

“I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species…and to disperse the families I have an aversion.” George Washington, letter to Robert Lewis, August 18, 1799

“A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.”Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

“An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens….There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books.”Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 19, 1787

“For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.” Thomas Jefferson, October 28, 1813

“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you… From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.” Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785

“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.”Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, February 15, 1791

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

“If a nation expects to be ignorant — and free — in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”Thomas Jefferson, letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816

“A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.”James Madison, essay in the National Gazette, February 2, 1792

“Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution.” James Madison, Federalist No. 39, January 1788

“Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.” James Madison, Essay on Property, March 29, 1792

“I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic — it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.” James Madison, speech to the Congress, April 9, 1789

“In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.”James Madison, Federalist No. 52, February 8, 1788

“Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.” Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.” Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

“Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases whatsoever” to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.”Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777

“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

“We have had enough of power without truth. We don’t have to accept power without truth or leave the country. I don’t accept that alternative. I don’t intend to leave the country, and I don’t intend to accept power without truth. I intend to fight for the truth, and I suggest that not only is this not un-American but it is the most American thing we can do, because if the truth does not endure then our country will not endure — not in the way it was supposed to. In our country the worst of all crimes is when the government murders truth. If it can murder truth, it can murder freedom.”– Jim Garrison, District Attorney of New Orleans. Garrison was the only public official to bring charges against some of the JFK assassination conspirators. For more from this wonderful speech, see Jim Garrison’s Summation at the JFK Murder Trial.

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt businesses and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.-Theodore Roosevelt, Trust Buster and Environmentalist

“Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, for it only consumes what the social order, based on private ownership in the means of production, has created.”– Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) Economist and social philosopher

“But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period—I am addressing myself to the School—surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”– Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister